Our World and Everything in It

I went car shopping today. I’m not going to give a report on all the makes and models because I was looking for kinda sporty cars and sedans that get 30 mpg or more. I’m not and never have been an aficionado of SUV’s. If I wanted a truck, I’d buy a truck. I have a problem with the idea of exiting from an SUV all dressed up in heels. Not going to happen, even if that sucker cost over $50,000. Besides that, I hate getting behind them where I’m at the mercy of their brake lights only. And the women that drive them…Omagawd. They’ve come right over in my lane more than once because they just can’t see, and are always, always on that cell phone. And I don’t have a small car. I have a tank of a Cadillac STS.

I shopped in Monroe just to see and drive the cars. It’s a great place to look since just about all the dealerships are either on Monroe St. or Telegraph Rd. But it still took me 4 hours to browse through 4 dealerships. I went to the Toyota, Mazda, and VW dealership on the south end of town first. Check out the Eos VW. It looks like a little hardtop but with the flick of a switch, it’s a convertible. You have to watch this magic. It reminds me of a Lady Bug flicking its wings to take off when it transforms itself.  Ah the Germans are ingenious. As a hardtop it also sports a moon roof. When I drove this car, I swear I was in my old BMW. It hugs curves, zips around, is almost silent, and with the top down there isn’t a really big draft so you can actually hear the radio, and talk to one another. I made the comment that my old Beemer was manual, and guess what, with the flick of a switch on the automatic gearshift, it becomes a clutch free manual drive. One button puts the top up and down into the trunk, and one button makes all the windows go up and down at once if you like. What a great little car, RED of course.

Next stop was the Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge dealership. I’ve been seeing an awful lot of Avengers and Chargers around that look downright sporty. They look so much alike that I went with the Avenger since it gets a little better gas mileage. It was black with the sports package. What a comfortable ride. The seats were the best on my back anyway. It had good pickup, and what I couldn’t cram in that huge trunk, especially when both back seats pull forward. It would be good for trips to Lowe’s or packing up for camping, fishing, sporting trips. And what a deal. You can pretty much get one of these with little to nothing down, and for only $200/mo. for a 3-year lease. No wonder I’m seeing so many of these. I think I’d take the red one.

Groulx GMC, Pontiac, and Olds has more than a few choices also. The G8 has the look of a luxury sedan and sports car. There are two black ones sitting out front that I was immediately drawn to. What I ended up taking for a ride was another convertible, a white G6 Pontiac. It does pretty much what that little VW Eos did. With the flick of a switch the metamorphosis takes place from a hard top to a convertible. This car rode like my Cadillac and was fast. I took every car out on the expressway, and this one just floated. I’d have to say this was definitely a luxury convertible. Oh, and the one I test drove was discounted—a lot, as it was previously owned with only 1500 miles on it. If you’ve been holding back to get a convertible like this, better get down there for a great deal on this car.

I continued on to Victory Honda where I planned on looking at an Accord Coupe but could not get past the 4-door sedan. They’ve redone these cars to look like they belong in the Mercedes class of cars. What a mighty fine looking luxury sedan in the mid-$20,000 range. The leather seats and appointments are beautiful, and the back seat could fit two 6 ft. tall people no problem.

I had my 85-year-old mother in tow for this shopping spree. She was with me for the last 3 cars I bought sans my husband. Mind you this car only has 4 cylinders, (memories of my Beemer), but is really quick on the E-way. This car isn’t my Cadillac but it’s mighty close. The sales girl was showing me all the gizmos and a car has to go a long way to match what my 9 year-old STS has but this was close for half of what I paid for that Cad back in 99. And the safety features are phenomenal. There is a covering under the hood held in place by plastic tabs. If for some reason the engine starts on fire, the tabs melt, the covering comes down on the engine and smothers the fire. There is a breakaway engine mount so that if the car is hit head-on the engine drops and doesn’t end up in your lap. The front panels by the lights are super reinforced, and there are more airbags than I’ve ever seen on a car. Even the bumpers are 5 mph proof. If someone taps you, the bumpers crunch in but pop back out. Needless to say as we were driving along my mom looked over and said: “This is the car.”

And this probably will be the car, but that is me. There are fine Chevy cars too, especially the new Malibu, which I looked at before. I’ve also perused the Ford stock of cars like Ford’s Fusion, and Ford’s Escape that gets absolutely great mileage for a great price on a fine looking SUV if that is your preference. I have two friends that bought the Ford Focus that absolutely love their cars too.

If you’re tired of paying high gas prices, get out there and look around. The pickings are really, really great, and the deals are galore. The more cars I drove, the harder it was to make a choice. They all offered something I was looking for, and pretty much came with great stereo systems, MP3 and Bluetooth capabilities, nice interior appointments, sport’s packages with great looking wheels and trim, etc. The wheels and color can really make a car in my opinion. What a day. I’m bushed. 

I was listening to Good Morning America this morning and it seems cities around the country are having a hard time controlling speeding drivers. Follow along here. Scottsdale, AZ was the first city to have speed enforcement cameras on one of its highways. Other cities are following suit. A county in Maryland that has speed cameras simply sends a citation to the speeder in the mail if they are clocked at more than 11 mph over the limit. Eleven miles over is a far cry from one driver that was caught doing 131 mph past a 65 mph sign. This camera system has its detractors that claim the cameras aren’t always accurate and they are limited. But the cameras work.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety knows that Americans speed and on all types of roads.  The speed cameras have got the 75 mph crowd way down from 15 percent to less than 2. That’s quite a drop.  But why do we speed? Because we can. And most of the time we do it around 20 percent over the limit. We should be asking why during this oil crunch and with CO2 emission overload hasn’t our federal government lowered the speed limit to 55 mph like it did in the 70’s?
The idea of speeding because we can is bolstered by our car industry. Don’t get me wrong; it’s sheer joy to hear pistons slamming while jumping out in front of the guy that wasn’t going to let me on the expressway. But that’s about it. Keep traveling too fast and get caught, not to mention burning way too much gas and emitting excessive CO2 in the process. We should wonder about the contradiction of producing speedy cars in a country of speed limits. It’s stupid irony.

Lowered speed limits and the introduction of ethanol pumps, something I have yet to see anywhere, were the combination of choice in the 70’s when gas was high. I don’t think ethanol is the best idea, it will burden the space for food crops and give us another empire that is corn rich, but among alternative choices, it has its place. So where are the ethanol pumps? Are they gone the way of a lower speed limit?

Some of the excuses look extremely flimsy for all the things we do and don’t. If we had ethanol pumps back in the 70’s, than we should most surely be able to get them out there now and fast. It isn’t like we don’t have the technology. Ditto for lowering the speed limit. As for car manufacturers, Daimler-Chrysler (at the time) had the technology to produce hydrogen buses for Iceland 5 years ago but “nada” for us now. Ford and GM are slow to present true hybrids and keep lobbying on fuel economy issues. They claim they need time to produce 40-mpg cars. But back in 1984, the Big 3 automakers produced a total of 35 cars that got 40 mpg or more.  GM had 19, Ford had 6, and Chrysler had 10 of those gas savers. I say drag out those engineering plans and slap a new, sleek, light weight body on those babies and get em out there! My girlfriend who is in the market for a hybrid came back from the auto show disappointed and a little unnerved by the propaganda she heard like, “this is a REAL car,” because it goes too fast for the speed limits and burns mega petro.

Have you followed the logic and gathered a clear idea that nothing adds up here? We chase our tail—backwards! The experience and technology is there, so we have to look to the reason it’s not happening. There is only one industry that benefits from speeders, inefficient fuel economy, and no alternative fuel sources readily available—OIL.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4221537

http://www.mpgomatic.com/2007/10/19/super-cheap-high-mpg-cars-1984/